Career nights

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, March 31, 2005

The owner for 26 years of the Green Wave's single-game scoring record, Jon Pompea, was a 15 points per game player, otherwise just a solid player for a 4-16 team during the 1978-79 season. Yet when Jon unexpectedly exploded for 43 points during a homecourt loss to Joel Barlow that winter, he etched his name into NMHS hardcourt annals. In no other game during his career did Jon exceed 25 points.

The previous owner of the all-time high had been Howard "Pete" Pease, indisputably one of NMHS' all-time superior athletes and a consummate all-around basketball player. However, until Pete ripped through Ridgefield for 40 points at Pettibone School one night in the winter of 1962, he had been the team's second option on offense to fellow senior Ken Horne. As with Pompea, that night was to mark Pease's only venture into the upper scoring echelon.

Curiously, the only other 40-point game in Green Wave history was achieved in 1994 by Donald Fiddner, until then known better for his passing skills. His previous high game was 22 points and, even after that huge game, Donald scored in the 20s just once more. Ironically, his brother, Chris, was the scorer in the family and finished his career with five games of 25 points or more and owner of third place on the Green Wave's all-time list with 1,006 points.

The early chronology of the school's scoring record is sketchy due to incomplete records. It seems Joe Kwasniewski might have been the first player to crack the 30-point barrier with 30 points vs. Woodbury in 1935.

Alfred "Sonny" Zaloski registered a 33-point game vs. Woodbury in 1947 to likely raise the standard. Dick Volinski scored 36 points in a 1953 game and Sam Blackman one-upped that to 37 in 1956 to set the stage for Pease's 1962 heroics.

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Since Pompea set the 43-point standard for the Green Wave, Donald Fiddner's 40-point game has been the only serious threat.

The following players have scored 30 or more: Tom "Tucker" Burke several times during the late 1960s, Greg Pompea (31) in '81, John Ndukwu (30) in '83, Eric Jackson (31) in '86, Jamie Scrimgeour (35, 33, 31) in '87, Karl Radday (34, 32) in '90 and '91, J.R. Waters (35) in '98, David Duda (31) in '02, Brandon Pape (30) in '03, and Todd Ward (32,30) in '04 and '05..